This week I wrapped up teaching a couple of classes on the Book of Jonah. I love this story about a reluctant prophet and the lesson it teaches about the universality of God’s love. I also find the role animals play in the story intriguing, and I’m not just talking about the “huge fish” that swallowed Jonah. When the wicked city of Nineveh repents even the animals get in on the act by wearing sackcloth and joining the fast. And then, when you come to the very end of the story, God indicates that the animals found in Nineveh are one of the main reasons He was “concerned about that great city” and did not want to destroy it.

Anyone familiar with the Bible should not be surprised by the concern God revealed for the animals of Nineveh. Genesis 1 indicates that God was the one who made the animals in the first place. We also read here that after God created the animals He “saw that it was good.” In Genesis 2 God instructed Adam to give names to the animals. Later still in the Book of Genesis there is the familiar story of Noah and how God used him to preserve the animals when the world was destroyed by a great flood. No, the Book of Jonah is not the only place where God’s love or concern for animals is mentioned in the Scriptures.

I happen to believe that God’s concern for animals should be our concern too. In the Genesis 1 account of Creation animals are made the same day humans are. We share the same Maker and the same home. We have a beneficial role to play in their lives and they in ours. Meister Eckhart believed “Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God.” As our fellow creatures and illuminator of the divine all animals deserve our respect.

Two prayers come to my mind here that I’d like for you to consider. The first was penned by George Appleton. “O God, I thank thee for all the creatures thou hast made, so perfect in their kind—great animals like the elephants and the rhinoceros, humorous animals like the camel and the monkey, friendly ones like the dog and the cat, working ones like the horse and the ox, timid ones like the squirrel and the rabbit, majestic ones like the lion and the tiger, for birds with their songs. O Lord give us such love for thy creation, that love may cast out fear, and all thy creatures see in man their priest and friend through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The second prayer comes from the hand or heart of Albert Schweitzer: “Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends the animals, especially for animals who are suffering, for any that are hunted or lost, or deserted or frightened or hungry, for all that must be put to death. We entreat for them all thy mercy and pity and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words. Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the merciful.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky challenged us to love animals, adding “God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don’t harass them, don’t deprive them of their happiness, don’t work against God’s intent.” These are words we should all take to heart for caring for our fellow creatures truly is part of our divine calling. God wanted to make sure Jonah understood that and I suspect God wants us to understand it as well.

Today is the twelfth and final day of the Christmas season. When you add the four weeks of Advent to the twelve days of Christmas, and then tack on all the pre-Advent weeks of Christmas decorations, music and commercials, Christmas seems to last forever these days. I hope it has been a joyful and blessed season for you and before we officially leave it I’d like to pause one more time to consider the significance of the Incarnation.

In today’s “Daily Meditation” by Richard Rohr he makes the claim that Christmas for many is an even bigger celebration than Easter. It would be hard to deny that claim. In fact, I’ve often wondered why we go all out in our celebration of Christmas but seem rather subdued when it comes to Easter. Rohr offers one reason. He says “because for God to be born as one of us in this world among the animals and in a poor family shows that humanity is good, flesh is good, and this world is good!” I’m not sure Rohr’s reason fully justifies the disproportionate celebration Christmas receives over Easter but he does point to an often forgotten truth that was made manifest when God took on human flesh that first Christmas. By entering this world and actually becoming a part of this world God revealed the goodness of Creation and humanity itself. This goodness was already affirmed in the Genesis 1 account of Creation but by taking on human flesh and living in the midst of this Creation God affirmed their goodness on a whole new level.

Contrary to various philosophies that have dominated human thinking at times, this world is good and life in this world is as well. The birth of Jesus Christ offers proof of this. If the world and life were not sacred prior to Jesus’ birth—and I believe that they were—they certainly were afterwards. In a definitive way God added God’s stamp of approval on both when Jesus was born.

At the end of today’s “daily meditation” Rohr says “Christ is both the Alpha and the Omega of history (Revelation 1:8), naming it correctly at the very start and forever alluring it forward. Love is both the cause and the goal of all creation. This is a meaningful universe, and meaning is what the soul needs to thrive.” God’s love revealed at Christmas, and certainly Easter too, does in fact give meaning to the universe and life itself. It also serves as a useful reminder that God is as much a part of this earth and this life as God is of heaven and the life to come. I’m afraid far too many of us fail to recognize this. If we fully understood this truth we’d be singing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” not just at Christmas but year round.

–Chuck

(I took the first and third image in Henderson County, KY., and the middle image at Yellowstone National Park.)

What’s so bad about the badlands? That’s the question I kept asking myself last week while visiting Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Why call such a beautiful land “bad”? My guess is that early settlers found the terrain difficult to traverse or perhaps not conducive to grazing cattle. But do these things warrant calling the land bad? I don’t think the bison I saw there would call it bad. Neither would the thousands of prairie dogs found in the region. Nor would the pronghorn antelope or bighorn sheep say this was a bad place to live. Even the countless meadowlarks I saw there sang as if they had no complaint about the land about them.

Humans seem to have a tendency to give value to things primarily as they relate to themselves. A fancy word for this is anthropocentrism. If something benefits us it is considered good; if it does not we deem it bad. We may have a tendency to look at things this way but I don’t think God does. For some reason we often forget that God declared in Genesis 1 that all that He made is “good.” Perhaps we have trouble finding the good at times from a human perspective but that does not mean such things do not have an inherent goodness about them. All of the earth is valuable and good because it was created by and belongs to God. In one of her poems Mary Oliver says “You cannot cross one hummock or furrow but it is His holy ground.” The badlands are no exception.

As I enjoyed the beauty and diversity of Badlands National Park and pondered why they got the designation “bad-lands” I thought of the story in the Book of Acts where Peter has a vision where “he saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.” (10:11) In that sheet were all kinds of animals and Peter heard a voice that instructed him to kill and eat what he saw. Since many of the species were ceremonially unclean animals and forbidden by Jews for eating Peter protested and said he had never eaten anything impure or unclean. At this point Peter heard a heavenly voice tell him, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (10:15) Perhaps we stand in need today of a new vision where we are reminded that there are no bad lands. If we are going to be good stewards of the earth it would certainly help if we recognized the goodness of the land. Wouldn’t you agree?

Last night I decided it was time for me to reread C. S. Lewis’ classic series The Chronicles of Narnia. I began with the first book, The Magician’s Nephew. It is in this volume that Lewis tells the story of the founding of Narnia. It will be obvious to most people that Lewis’ tale parallels to a certain degree the Creation story found in Genesis 1.

The beginnings of Narnia are witnessed by a handful of humans from earth and a wicked witch that have travelled through time and space by using some magic rings. They all witness the arrival of the lion Aslan and his singing the new world into creation. They do not, however, all witness this in the same way. The two children are in awe of what they see. The witch ends up running off in fear. Another character immediately begins to see the potential for making a fortune from what was being created before his very eyes. After this same character offers a complaint while so many wonderful things were happening all around him a different character says to him, “Oh stow it, Guv’nor, do stow it. Watchin’ and listenin’s the thing at present, not talking.”

I think these words are some a lot of us need to pay heed to when we stand before God and God’s Creation. Even now God’s Creation continues to unfold all around us. Like the characters in the book, we too are witnesses of God’s ongoing Creation. The Bible makes it clear that God is not finished with the work He started long ago. God is creating still. As we witness this ongoing work we would be wise to do more watching and listening than talking. We’ll see, hear, and learn a lot more that way.

A couple of weeks ago Rob Sheppard came to visit me and I was reminded how lax I had become in listening to Creation. Living near Los Angeles, California, Rob does not get to hear the sounds he was hearing where I live. He opened the window in our guest room so he could hear the crickets and cicadas. When we walked through John James Audubon State Park he commented on the sounds of the forest. All of the sounds he pointed out were common ones that I no longer really pay attention to. I guess I’ve come to take them for granted. That is not good. In order to get the most out of God’s “Other Book” I need to do more “watchin’ and listenin’.” I suspect a lot of people do. Perhaps recognizing that is a first step in moving toward a greater experience of God through Creation. I hope so anyway.

–Chuck

(I took the pictures shown above at Yellowstone National Park. This is one spot where God’s ongoing work of Creation seems pretty obvious.)

It is good for us when we are young because of the incomparable sanity it can bring briefly, as vacation and rest… It is important to us when we are old simply because it is there.” Wallace Stegner

For the past week I have been in California traveling with my friend, Rob Sheppard. We have covered a lot of territory during this time. We have driven through the Mojave desert, wandered around the mountains and valleys of the eastern Sierras, visited Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on the west side of the Sierras, and traveled farther westward to take in Pinnacles National Park. We saw first light on Mount Whitney from the Alabama Hills, watched a glorious sunrise from high on Onion Valley, walked reverently among the ancient bristlecone pine trees high atop the White Mountains, and marveled at the truly giant sequoias in the park that bears their name. At Pinnacles National Park we got to see a plethora of wildlife and enjoy the scenic beauty of our newest national park. Without a doubt we have been blessed!

The words of Wallace Stegner that begin this blog I saw on a wayside exhibit at Kings Canyon National Park a couple of days ago. They concern Stegner’s view of wilderness and why he thought preserving and experiencing it is important for both young and old alike. Even though I certainly fall in the “old” category when it comes to age, I still find wilderness necessary because of “the incomparable sanity” it brings me in a world which sometimes seems mad. Recent school shootings, terrorist attacks, the craziness that comes with each political season, and a lot of other things I could mention. makes me at times want to stop the world and get off. Every time I read the news or watch it on television here lately I get either angry, depressed or discouraged.

Spending a week in wilderness settings has helped put things in perspective a bit. Walking amongst bristlecone pine trees that have been around over four thousand years and looking up at giant sequoias that tower to the skies has a way of doing that. In the wilderness one finds a peace and quiet that is next to impossible to experience in the regular hustle and bustle of everyday life. Walking in the woods and observing the miracles of God’s Creation has a way of restoring peace and rekindling one’s faith. At least it does for me. And I honestly believe that God intended this to be true for everyone else. The awesome Creation we have been blessed with was not made just to provide for our physical needs; God ordered the natural world so that spiritual needs might be met as well. That’s why in Psalm 23 David writes about God making him lie down in “green pastures” and leading him beside “still waters.” I also get the impression that’s why Jesus during difficult times in his life often got away from everyone and communed with God in “lonely places.” In the beginning God declared the goodness of Creation and that goodness is seen, in part, in the therapeutic and spiritual benefits it provides us all.

I’ll not elaborate here on the second part of Stegner’s words but I happen to believe it to be true. Now that I am “old” or older I find myself just grateful knowing that there are wilderness areas still available for people like me who sometimes find this world to be anything but sane. I just hope we can preserve such places for future generations. I have a feeling they are going to need them…

–Chuck

(The pictures used above are some I took this past week in California.)

There’s been a lot in the news today. Actually, I guess that’s a bit of an understatement. There have been a lot of important stories for people to read, watch or listen to. One story I read this morning on USA Today’s website greatly concerns me. With all the other events of the day it is now basically hidden and that makes me wonder how many saw it. The article I am referring to is called “Sixth Mass Extinction?” and gives some horrifying statistics from a recent report concerning the extinction of species.

The study, which first appeared in Science Advances last week, claims “Our global society has started to destroy species of other organisms at an accelerating rate, initiating a mass extinction episode unparalleled for 65 million years.” The study concluded that even with conservative statistics, recent extinction rates are unprecedented in the history of mankind. Some of the statistics are almost unfathomable. According to the report we are currently losing mammal species 20 to 100 times the rate of the past. Since 1900 sixty-nine mammal species have gone extinct, along with 400 other invertebrates. The report also claims that since 1970 we’ve lost 52% of the Earth’s bird, mammal, fish, reptile and amphibian population.

The last mass extinction, the 5th one, included the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Scientists have long pondered the cause of this mass extinction. I’ve heard answers like a meteor hitting the earth and climate change given for that mass extinction. But what is the cause of the current one? According to the study, we are. The USA Today article says “At current rates of consumption and emissions, 1 1/2 Earths would be required to meet humanity’s demands on nature each year. Those demands include renewable resources like food, fuel, land and ‘forests we need to absorb our carbon emissions.’” The report cited goes on to say, “For more than 40 years, humanity’s demand has exceeded the planet’s biocapacity — the amount of biologically productive land and sea area that is available to regenerate these resources.”

If the statistics and information in this report are accurate this is truly disturbing news. A natural catastrophe of epic proportions is in the works, one due largely to our poor stewardship of the earth. I realize that there are many people who won’t care that so many species created by God are disappearing at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, it seems many humans are only concerned about their own survival. I’d like to think that the biblical story of Noah is a reminder to us that God cares about all creatures. I also believe that God’s declaring all the animals He made to be good in Genesis 1 is another such reminder. In my mind the needless elimination of any species is a great sin on our part.

A couple of days ago I spent a good bit of time wandering the halls of the Chicago Institute of Art. I was overwhelmed by the vast collection of art work assembled there. So many of the pieces on display are priceless. I wonder what the response would be if 52% of this collection disappeared over the next forty years. Would that be viewed as something insignificant? Or would it be viewed as a national tragedy? I would like to think the answer would be the latter.

All of us should be very concerned about the ever increasing loss of species on earth. We have a moral and spiritual obligation to do something about it. Not only should we support efforts to save various endangered species, we must also look at our own lifestyles and see if there are not steps that need to be taken to lessen our demand on the earth’s resources. We simply cannot continue to move in the direction we’ve been heading and not expect there to be dire consequences not only for a long list of endangered creatures but for ourselves as well.

I have a strong feeling that the USA Today report will get lost in the shuffle of all the other important news from today. Hopefully, however, it will not be lost for long. This is something that demands our attention and the sooner the better.

–Chuck

(For today’s entry I have chosen wildlife images I have taken of animals that either have been or continue to be on the endangered species list–bald eagle, sea otter, American crocodile, and Stellar sea lions.)